Central Oregon & Pacific receives TIGER grant

The U.S. Department of Transportation, through the Federal Railroad Administration, has awarded a $7 million TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant to the State of Oregon to support a $9.4 million project that will rehabilitate and reopen a 296-mile stretch of the Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad (a Genesee & Wyoming property).

The project will help improve tunnels, rails, ties and bridges. The right-of-way runs parallel to I-5 between Northern California and Oregon, and reopening the line “provides an environmentally friendly, economically competitive alternative for shipping goods in the region,” USDOT said.